PASTA LIGHT: Homemade Turkey Spaghetti

I had a craving over the weekend: good ol' spaghetti and meatballs. Doesn't that always sound good? It seemed like a heavy dinner for July so I thought of ways to lighten it up: use ground turkey instead of ground beef and incorporate the meat into the sauce rather than make big meatballs. You could also substitute regular pasta with whole wheat pasta if you like.

I like a lot of chunky foods: chunky salsa, chunky peanut butter, chunky cookies... So the spaghetti sauce below has delicious chunks of cooked tomato, onion and turkey. However, if you're not a "chunky kind of person," feel free to substitute the diced tomatoes with tomato sauce and chop your onions as finely as you can. This easy spaghetti sauce recipe has simple ingredients sure to amount to a lot of flavor. I'm hoping you won't want to go back to the jar.

Twirl, savor and enjoy!


Things I've Learned:

• Grate fresh garlic. It's so much easier than chopping, mincing and pasting! Just peel the garlic and grate it with your zester right into the pan. You won't have to worry about anyone chomping into a big piece of garlic, and you get all of the flavorful juices!
• You can't beat fresh Parmesan. Use a vegetable peeler to shave it right off the block, and those thin slices give the perfect saltiness to each bite of your pasta dish.
• Waste no more! Always have a tube of tomato paste in your refrigerator. In the past when a recipe called for a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, I opened a can and always had at least half of it left. I'd try to figure out ways to use it before it went bad, but more times than not it ended up in the garbage. The tubes makes it so you can use what you need without worrying about wasting.

HOMEMADE TURKEY SPAGHETTI
recipe from Trish Garber
serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 sweet onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less to taste)
  
• 1 package ground turkey (1.25 lbs)
  
• 1 big can (28 oz) Italian style peeled tomatoes
• 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning (usually a combination of marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savory, sage, oregano and basil)
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
  
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• 1 box/bag spaghetti
• fresh Parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic until soft. Add the red pepper flakes.
2. Put the ground turkey directly in the pan with the onion, garlic and red pepper flakes. Salt, pepper and brown the ground turkey, breaking it up as it cooks.
3. Open the can of peeled tomatoes. Take out and dice the whole tomatoes. Pour the remaining juice from the can, as well as the diced tomatoes, into the pan.
   
4. Add the Italian seasoning, sugar, tomato paste, salt and pepper to the sauce. Once the mixture bubbles, turn the heat to low/medium-low and cook down (20-30 minutes or so).
5. If you like to drink wine while you cook or plan to have it with your pasta dinner like me, add a splash of red wine to the sauce and let the sauce cook until it thickens back up. It adds another layer of flavor. If you don't have it on hand, that's ok. Think of it as a bonus :)
   
6. Cook the pasta according to the box/bag.
7. Serve the pasta with the homemade sauce and shaved Parmesan on top.